Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on zero-rating VAT on fire safety works for anyone retrospectively required to undertake fire safety works on buildings that met regulations when completed.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
Hundreds of thousands of leaseholders will be protected from the cost of replacing unsafe cladding on their homes as part of the Government’s five-point plan to provide reassurance to homeowners and build confidence in the housing market.
An additional £3.5 billion in funding to remediate unsafe cladding will be provided, bringing the total Government investment in building safety to an unprecedented £5.1 billion. Funding will be targeted at high-rise residential buildings in line with longstanding independent expert advice and evidence on risk.
Lower-rise buildings between 11 and 18 metres, with a lower risk to safety, will gain new protection from the costs of cladding removal through a long-term, low interest, Government backed financing scheme. No leaseholder in this scheme will ever pay more than £50 a month towards the removal of unsafe cladding. To ensure the largest property developers pay their fair share, we are also introducing a developer levy and a new tax. Together we anticipate that will raise at least £2 billion over a decade.
I can confirm there have been no discussions to date on the particular issue raised. Problems with cladding and other fire safety defects are typically as a result of a failure to comply with building regulations. Government funding does not absolve building owners of their responsibility to ensure their buildings are safe. They should consider all routes to meet costs, protecting leaseholders where they can – for example through warranties and recovering costs from contractors for incorrect or poor work.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to work with (a) the Department of Health and Social Care and (b) public health teams to ensure homeless people receive the covid-19 vaccine.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government is working closely with the Department of Health and Social Care, Public Health England, and NHS England to ensure the health and care needs of vulnerable people experiencing rough sleeping can be met during the COVID-19 pandemic – including access to the vaccination.
On 8 January, we asked all local authorities to ensure that even more people experiencing rough sleeping are safely accommodated, backed by £10 million. We also asked that this opportunity is actively used to make sure that individuals are registered with a GP and are factored into local area vaccination plans, in line with JCVI prioritisation.
Many people sleeping rough may have underlying conditions that increase the risk of severe illness from COVID-19 but may struggle to access the healthcare they need. The JCVI have now advised that local teams should consider a universal offer of the COVID-19 vaccine for people experiencing homelessness or rough sleeping alongside the delivery of the programme to priority group 6, where appropriate. This will help ensure that the wider health needs of people who sleep rough are addressed, supporting them now and for the future.
We recognise that this group may also experience additional barriers to accessing mainstream delivery of the COVID-19 vaccine. That’s why we have encouraged local authorities to work with their local health partners to consider alternative means of delivering the vaccine where mainstream provision is unsuitable.
We continue to work with the homelessness sector, local authorities and health and care partners, to ensure the needs of those experiencing homelessness can be met.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department has taken to work with homeless accommodation providers to ensure covid-secure provision.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
We have taken unprecedented steps to provide rough sleepers with the COVID-secure accommodation they need during the pandemic. This work has not stopped, and by the end of January we had supported over 37,000 people, with over 11,000 in emergency accommodation and over 26,000 already moved into longer-term accommodation.
We are continuing to ask local councils to help more rough sleepers into COVID-secure accommodation and to ensure that their wider health needs are addressed, and have provided £10 million to enable them to do so. This builds on the package of winter support announced last year, which included a £10 million Cold Weather Fund for all local authorities to bring forward COVID-secure accommodation and £2 million funding for the faith, communities and voluntary sector to transform their traditional communal sleeping services into self-contained and COVID-secure accommodation.
We have also worked extensively with Public Health England to provide Operating Principles to help the sector open shelters as safely as possible where absolutely necessary, when self-contained accommodation cannot be made available and when local partners agree that it is the right thing to do.
On 25 February, the Secretary of State announced further voluntary sector funding that will enable local night shelters to provide COVID-secure, sustainable models of provision moving forwards.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the timeframe for the submission of applications to the Building Safety Fund.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Government extended the full tender deadline for Building Safety Fund to 30 June 2021. This deadline has been set based on what we now know about registrants and their readiness to be able to deliver projects. The announcement on 10 February of an additional £3.5 billion of funding provides assurance for residents that all eligible applications to the Building Safety Fund will be able to proceed.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether his Department is planning a further tranche of funding for applicants unable to meet the Building Safety Fund June 2021 deadline.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
We will publish more details on how the additional funding for the removal of unsafe cladding announced on 10 February will work alongside existing funds.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to release further rounds of funding for the Community Champions scheme open to bids from all local authorities.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
On 25 January we announced £23.75 million funding through the Community Champions Scheme to 60 councils and voluntary groups across England - to expand work to support those most at risk from COVID-19.
Participating local authorities will provide monthly reporting from March 2021, which will be used to assess the scope and reach of the Community Champions programme.
We will learn from the current scheme and assess the case for any further funding
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate his Department has made of the level of revenue lost by (a) tenants and (b) leaseholders due to home sales not progressing as a result of cladding-related issues in the latest period for which figures are available.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The information requested is not held
The Government has announced over £5 billion in grant towards the removal of unsafe cladding on buildings over 18 metres in height. This unprecedented investment in building safety will help hundreds of thousands of leaseholders, who will be protected from the cost of replacing unsafe cladding on their homes
Alongside this a generous finance scheme will also provide for remediation of unsafe cladding on buildings of 11-18 metres in height. Leaseholders will pay no more than £50 a month towards this scheme. We will publish more details on how these schemes will work as soon as we are in a position to do so
Instead of facing sudden cladding bills of tens of thousands of pounds, leaseholders will need to pay either nothing, or up to £50 per month towards fixing the problem. This helps gives lenders certainty both that the cladding will be remediated, and of the total potential financial impact on a leaseholder and their property.
This announcement is therefore an important step towards restoring confidence in the housing market. It provides certainty for lenders where unsafe cladding is present and complements the wider work we have underway to continue to develop a proportionate risk-based regulatory environment on fire safety
We continue to work with industry to ensure risk assessment is proportionate, which we hope will enable mortgage and lending markets to re-stabilise.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether the additional £3.5 billion announced for the Building Safety Fund will cover residential buildings that are mixed-use developments.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
We will be publishing more details on how the additional funding for the removal of unsafe cladding announced on 10 February will work alongside existing funds.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when the eligibility criteria for the Waking Watch Relief Fund will be published; when application decisions are likely to be assessed; and when payments will be made available.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Waking Watch Relief Fund Full Fund Application Guidance which sets out eligibility criteria and details of the application process was published on 31 January and is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/waking-watch-relief-fund.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 20 January 2021 to Question 136542, how many and what proportion of the 33,000 people supported through the Everyone In scheme were subject to No Recourse to Public Funds restrictions.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
The data and breakdown requested is currently not available. Through Everyone In, by November we had supported around 33,000 people with nearly 10,000 in emergency accommodation and over 23,000 already moved on into longer-term accommodation.
We are aware that some of these individuals housed during Everyone In will have No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) restrictions.
The rules as to eligibility relating to immigration status, including for those with NRPF, have not changed.
Local authorities must use their judgement in assessing what support they may lawfully give to each person on an individual basis, considering that person’s specific circumstances and support needs.
Local authorities already regularly make such judgements on accommodating individuals who might otherwise be ineligible, during extreme weather for example, where there is a risk to life.
Local authorities may also provide basic safety net support if it is established that there is a genuine care need that does not arise solely from destitution, for example, where there are community care needs, migrants with serious health problems or family cases where the wellbeing of a child is in question.